Ceramics and glass business news of the week

The U.K. recently announced two £10 million manufacturing research hubs that will address major, long-term challenges facing the U.K.’s manufacturing industries and capture opportunities from emerging research. The hubs will be based at the University of Southampton and Brunel University in London and will have a program of innovative research related to the challenges in commercializing early stage research.

Scientists at Rochester Institute of Technology and Raytheon Vision Systems are getting closer to developing infrared detectors grown on silicon wafers for ground-based astronomy. NSF awarded RIT nearly $2 million in second-phase funding for the Center for Detectors to lead the development of this new family of detectors. The sensitive detectors developed with Raytheon will have broad coverage from the optical to infrared wavelengths.

Owens Corning is a great place to work as an intern, according to a national assessment of employers and interns by career website Vault.com. Owens Corning ranked 27th on the list of the top 50 internships in the U.S. Vault surveyed more than 5,800 interns at 102 organizations. Current and former interns were asked to rate and review their internship experiences on several factors.

Oak Ridge National Lab and Solid Power Inc. (Louisville, Colo.) have signed an exclusive agreement licensing lithium-sulfur materials for next-generation batteries. The company licensed a portfolio of ORNL patents relating to lithium-sulfur compositions. ORNL’s proof-of-concept battery research has demonstrated the technology’s potential to improve power, operating temperature, manufacturability and cost as well.

NASA has secured partnerships with 22 U.S. companies through two solicitations to advance the agency’s goals for robotic and human exploration of the solar system by shepherding the development of critical space technologies. NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate selected nine companies to mature technologies beyond their “tipping point” with the goal of enabling private industry to develop and qualify them for market.

U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz announced $125 million across 41 cutting-edge energy technologies awarded by the DOE Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E). These new projects are funded under ARPA-E’s OPEN 2015 program, come from 21 states, and encompass 10 technical categories, including transportation, electricity generation and delivery, and energy efficiency.